Go Seigen, Born June 12 1914 (Chinese calendar: May 19, 1914)
in Fukien Province, China. Came to Japan in
1928 and became student of Segoe, Honorary 9 dan. The next year
he was promoted by recommendation to professional 3 dan.
In September 1936, Go Seigen was sick and December 1936 he
went to the hospital and stayed there for 1 year and 3 months.
(That's the reason he didn't play any games in 1937.)
When he got out finally, the first major thing he did was to
comment the memorial retirement game between Honinbo Shusai Meijin
and Kitani Minoru (subject of the famous book 'The Master of Go'),
the Japanese Go world was waiting for him to say something about the game!
In 1950 promoted by recommendation to 9 dan by the Nihon Kiin.
In 1933, along with Kitani Minoru 6 dan (at the time), he
developed the "New Fuseki" (Shin-fuseki). The same year he won
the Nihon Kiin Championship and a special game with Honinbo
Shusai Meijin was arranged. His play in that game was the cause
of controversy when he played his first three moves on the 3-3
point, a star point in the opposite corner, and the central star
point (tengen).
He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1936, adopting the
name "Kureizumi", but later changed it back to "Seigen".
Starting in 1939, he played a Jubango (ten game match) with
Kitani Minoru, beating him down a rank by winning the match 6
wins to 4 losses. This was the start of a brilliant match career
in which he defeated all the top players in Japan successively:
Karigane Junichi 8 dan, in 1942; Hashimoto Utaro 8 dan in 1946;
Honinbo Iwamoto Kaoru 8 dan in 1948; Fujisawa Kuranosuke (later
called Hosai) twice, in 1951 and 1953; Sakata Eio 8 dan in 1954
(although Sakata had defeated Go in a six game match earlier, the
only player to have defeated Go in match play); and Honinbo
Takagawa Kaku 8 dan in 1955 (at one point Go had a record of
eleven straight victories against Takagawa in match play).
Only major titles were 1st & 3rd Japan Strongest Titles in 1958
and 1961 respectively, but was always considered a player of the
very highest caliber. Won the Oteai 6 times.
Go Seigen retired gradually for health reasons starting in
1964, though he only offcially retired in 1983.
Winner of the Okura Prize in 1967. In 1979, he once again adopted
Japanese citizenship. Rin Kaiho, Tengen is his pupil.
Affiliation: Honorary member of the Nihon Kiin. Lives in Tokyo, Japan.
Go Seigen died on 2014-09-30 (01:11 in the morning) at the respectable age of 100.